Flattening a waterstone

[Beardo16]

Anyone know how to flatten a waterstone without the use of a lapping plate/stone?

I recently bought the stones but noticed yesterday they are not flat so this is the reason.

Also anyone know why the jet wetstone grinder doesnt come with the diamond trueing stone to flatten the wetstone. Seems real odd as thats another 40 quid to flatten the wetstone. :evil:

Thanks

 

[Peter T]

I use a cheepo granite surface plate, £35 off ebay, with some 80 grit sandpaper stuck to it.

 

[katellwood]

Peter T

Would you use 80 grit for all grades of waterstone even polishing stones?

 

[JWF]

Spray glue a piece of 80/100 grit paper to an old mirror or piece of plate glass. This works well and can used to polish backs of chisels/plane irons using wet & dry.
John

 

[David C]

I find 240 grit works fine for regular flattening.

In general coarse papers are fine for polishing stones. The logic being that you can feel whether loose grit particles are contaminating your stone when you rinse it off. i.e. feel all over the surface with your finger tips when rinsing.

David Charlesworth

 

[Alf]

The drywall screen stuff was all the rage for flattening waterstones at one point - is that out of favour now?

As to the OP's second point, possibly wringing out another forty quid from the customer is the reason? </cynic>

Cheers, Alf

 

[David C]

Alf,

How nice to hear you.

I tried it but Drywall screen is out of favour with me. It is quite thick and wears. From this I deduce its surface must go hollow.

David

 

[Alf]

Ah, David (hello, btw!), I had a feeling you'd tried it. I thought it wore quickly myself, but I'd already lost patience with waterstones before I ran across it, so considered myself a biased opinion. When Derek is awake hopefully he'll chime in, 'cos last I recall he was using it.

Dredging my memory again, someone or other flattened one stone with another. Would that be Rob Cosman? At about this point usually Whitworth and three surfaces comes into play and I bemoan the fact my school would insist I did Home Economics. Unfortunately knowing how to make a chocolate sponge is pipper all use at this point. #-o

Cheers, Alf

 

[Beardo16]

Thanks for all the replies guys.

Alf, i certainly think you are right, they are trying to rinse my pockets.

Does anyone know if you have to true up a wetstone on a tormek with a diamond true jig?

 

[mickthetree]

Alf, it is Rob Cosman that does that yes (watched the DVD just the other day in fact)

I wondered about rubbing a courser grit with a finer one and vice versa and whether or not they would contaminate each other. Also keeping them and flushing them in the same water (which ends up with lots of metal particles in as well) I thought odd.

Still his tools are sharp so its obviously not causing him much bother.

 

[Smudger]

 

[matthewwh]

I've found 100um lapping film very useful for this job. It's quite aggressive and because the surface is resin flooded it doesn't lose its grit.

You can either stick it to MDF and use it dry (which is very fast) and then bang it on the edge to knock off the debris from time to time, or stick it to glass and use it wet, in which case you can rinse the debris off.

 

[aesmith]

Any tips for keeping the stones parallel as well as flat (if you know what I mean)?

 

[WellsWood]

I use an extra coarse DMT fro flattening, as it lives on the bench for primary bevel work so it's always to hand.

Any tips for keeping the stones parallel as well as flat (if you know what I mean)?

I constantly flip my stones around in use so as to even out the wear, and try to use all of the stone's surface. Working just in the centre of the stone will quickly produce a dished surface.
When flattening I use a similar regime, turning the stone 180deg before doing (roughly) same number of orbits on the DMT. Works for me

 

[aesmith]

Cheers. Mine went so squint last time I flattened that I've been putting off doing it for a while.

 

[Derek Cohen (Perth Oz)]

I tried it but Drywall screen is out of favour with me. It is quite thick and wears. From this I deduce its surface must go hollow....

.... When Derek is awake hopefully he'll chime in, 'cos last I recall he was using it.

Dredging my memory again, someone or other flattened one stone with another. Would that be Rob Cosman?

Hi Alf and David

I was very happy with 220 grit drywall/plasterboard screen when using King waterstones. David, I recall convincing you to try this out, oh about 3 years ago. Perhaps we used different grades of screen (mine was a Nortons product) as I never had an issue with it dishing. Then again, I did change it out reasonably often. One of the advantages of the screen was that the mesh allowed for good drainage. Another was that it was flat and stiff, and easy to use. One observation is that the coarser grades of screen (approx 150 grit) appeared to have a thicker coating on the mesh. What grade/make were you using?

When I moved to Shaptons I bought a DMT extra coarse diamond stone (10"). This was flat and worked pretty well. About a year ago I had the opportunity to purchase a new Shapton diamond flattening plate for an affordable price (from an estate sale). This is what I now use. It is wonderful (and so it should be at the price!).

For value-for-money (that does not mean the cheapest method!), I think that an extra coarse (275 grit) DMT diamond stone should be a serious consideration. It will last a lifetime if only used on the stones (never on metal).

Rob Cosman was indeed the one to rub two 1000 Norton stones together, then use these to flatten his 8000. The problem I have with this is that this would eventually lead to curved stones!

Regards from Perth

Derek

 

[wizer]

You crazy people and your 'water' stones :roll: :wink:

 

[Peter T]

Peter T

Would you use 80 grit for all grades of waterstone even polishing stones?

No, I use finer grades for the finer stones.

Having said that, its the 120grit stone that needs repeated flattening. Finer ones seem to need much less maintenance.

 

[Peter T]

You crazy people and your 'water' stones :roll: :wink:

I love my water stones, except for the 120 grit that needs constant flattening.

The result of this is that it's now about half the thickness of the others.

I'm thinking of going DMT to replace the 120 grit waterstone, especially now I can pop into Axminster at Nuneaton!!!

 

[yetloh]

I'm with Derek on the extra coarse DMT, by which I mean the one that is a single sided continuos metal plate and around 120 grit (I think). When I bought mine they were MUCH cheaper from Dick in Germany than from Axminster. No doubt the exchange rate will have affected that but it is worth checking.

I do use mine for metal too, but am unworried about it wearing. Even when it has become slower on metal it will still work fine on a waterstone. I have found no problem in using a stone this fine even on my finest 16000 grit Shapton.

Jim